Bloomberg China will expand its agricultural use of environment-damaging plastic film to boost crop production even as authorities try to curb soil pollution, a government scientist said. Some 1.45 million metric tons of polyethylene are spread in razor-thin sheets across 49 million acres—an area about half the size of California—of farmland in China. Use of the translucent material may exceed …

Bloomberg India must boost growth if it’s to provide enough jobs for what will be the world’s biggest workforce, and history shows that some of the country’s best economic phases have come when society is most open, said Raghuram Rajan. Speaking a week after data showed growth in Asia’s No. 3 economy unexpectedly slowed to 5.7 percent, the former governor …

Bloomberg China will set a deadline for automakers to end sales of fossil-fuel powered vehicles, a move aimed at pushing companies to speed efforts in developing electric vehicles for the world’s biggest auto market. Xin Guobin, the vice minister of industry and information technology, said the government is working with other regulators on a timetable to end production and sales. …